Serving and Engagement Committee Chair Jan Jones

Jan Jones

The Service and Engagement Committee (SEC) had a fun and productive 2020-2021! We worked collaboratively within College Church to assist with congregant engagement at the individual and corporate level through membership, celebrations of service, fellowship dinners, a Reach Out and Touch Campaign (underway at this writing) and many other activities.

Our motto for this year has been “Growing in Unity” and each of us had differing ideas on the zeitgeist of 2020-2021, but we worked hard to keep the main thing the main thing, and the main thing is THE GOSPEL. We continued to build relationships with our congregants to help them put their faith in action so that they can grow in their faith and then tell others about Jesus.

Each SEC member was asked to read the book Creative Minority by Jon Tyson and Heather Grizzle. Here’s a quote that sums up the book:

“Becoming a Creative Minority paints a complete picture of the way the church is called to participate in these challenging and demanding times – seeking neither to control nor abandon the world, but to love it to new life through redemptive participation. In applying the idea of a Creative Minority to a Christian community, I [the author] describe it as follows:

A Creative Minority is a Christian community in a web of stubbornly loyal relationships, knotted together in a living network of persons who are committed to practicing the way of Jesus together for the renewal of the world. [Adapted from David Augsburger’s definition of community…there’s a footnote…see page 12 of Creative Minority….]

These words have been chosen carefully, and unpacking this definition will be the goal of the remainder of this book…”

Our merry band wants to help everyone participate in life with Jesus through “redemptive participation.”

We connected people to each other and to church through:

Reach Out and Touch Initiative: a phone calling and emailing campaign to simply say hello to congregants.

Fellowship Meals: These outdoor gatherings were just what some people needed for reconnection and physical distancing during the days of COVID. We are planning more for 2021 and ongoing.

Ministry Support: We checked in regularly with the leaders of volunteer-led ministries. This activity was particularly important this year, as many of the ministries didn’t even get underway late in the church year or didn’t operate “normally” at all. Leaders of these ministries appreciated knowing someone was with them, for them and praying for them.

Membership Classes: Members of the SEC attended the membership classes, connected with prospective members, presented information on the grand adventure of service and guided new members to help them get plugged in at College Church. There were 62 new members this year! Behind the scenes, we:

Worked diligently on our SEC “Data Capture and Usage” initiative. We were grateful to have several staff members help with this initiative and have made our recommendations to the Council of Elders in this area.

Worked with those developing the new church website to provide content, process flow and general guidance. We look forward to its launch!

2020-2021 has been a year for the books, and never has there been a greater opportunity to talk about Jesus and to show Jesus through our actions. These actions might have been serving in or at church, grocery shopping for a neighbor, shoveling a neighbor’s sidewalk (we had some snow this year, y’all) or prayer. We welcome the opportunity to help the College Church congregants put their faith in action and look forward to 2021-2022!

Thank you to all the members of the SEC: Kristin Berenschot, Daniel Conroy, Meagan Godoy, Chris Gottlieb, Jerry Jagrowski